


Ineffable Holiday: Holiday Shopping

by livingforazirowley



Series: Ineffable Holiday 2019 [7]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Alcohol, Chocolates, Crowley wears heart shaped sunglasses, First Kiss, Holiday Shopping, Holidays, Kissing, M/M, Mistletoe, Smug Aziraphale, Winter, kind of funny, prompt list, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21718234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livingforazirowley/pseuds/livingforazirowley
Summary: Day 8 of Ineffable Holiday prompt list by YamiKakyuu (@soft-angel-aziraphale on Tumblr): Holiday Shopping.
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Ineffable Holiday 2019 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1563967
Comments: 7
Kudos: 41
Collections: An Ineffable Holiday 2019





	Ineffable Holiday: Holiday Shopping

It seemed that the freezing wind could not dissuade people from shopping. Perhaps it was due to how close they were to Christmas Eve, perhaps it was that it was the thing to do that evening. Aziraphale dodged yet another grandma carrying more bags than she should be able to.

“Oh, dear, this is a nightmare!” the angel complained.

“Uh, well, you did say you wanted to go shopping for the holidays so you are having the complete experience,” Crowley answered, shrugging it off.

“I did, but it seems I wasn’t completely aware of what I was saying… This reminds me of Hell, with all the people and the queues and everyone running. Look at them, not even one of them is enjoying themselves!” he was shocked, trying to understand what was going on around him.

“It’s the 23rd, of course nobody is enjoying shopping. They’re desperate! The last ones, those who have slothly postponed over and over again their duties and now they are paying for it. It’s brilliant!” Crowley grinned.

“Brilliant? Wait, Crowley. Was holiday shopping your idea?” Aziraphale stopped walking and a man bumped into him before continuing his way without apologising. 

“Uh, not exactly. I wish it had been, I mean, turning a religious holiday into Hell? It’s genius! They beat me to it, but I got credit. So, if anyone asks, yeah I did come up with the last minute holiday shopping.” 

“Dear fellow, how many more things did you give yourself credit that I don’t know of?” Aziraphale asked, partially amused by it if it weren’t for the constant bumping with people and the general unpleasant ambient.

“That you don’t know of? Plenty. Yeah, many of them. About two per year? It was my job, innit?” 

“My goodness, and did they believe you? That seems like a rather big amount of lies, Crowley.”

“That’s right. You’re talking to the serpent of Eden. The original sin. The first tempter. I’m quite a good liar, you know? Telling people what they want to hear” they had started walking again but now people seemed to diverge their path just to let them pass, in a way that reminded Crowley of Moses.

“How would I know? I mean, if you are such a good liar, as you said, I wouldn’t be able to notice when you lied to me. So I guess not, I don’t really know,” Aziraphale explained. He had always assumed that Crowley, being a demon, wouldn’t always tell him the truth. It was expected of him, it was in his job description.

“Well, I don’t lie to you,” the demon pointed out. “What would be the point? You would probably get so mad at me that we wouldn’t speak for a century or so, which has happened in the past even though when I was telling you the truth, and that’s something I’m not willing to go through again. Not good. Well, the nap was good. But everything else sucked pretty badly. Did you know I woke up in the middle of World War II? Let me tell you, it was not a pleasant surprise.”

“And yet you came to rescue me,” Aziraphale slyly smiled at Crowley.

“Yeah, well. That’s what friends do. Or so I’ve heard,” Crowley shrugged it off and entered the first shop he saw, a decoration store filled with Christmas trees of all shapes, colours and materials, a wide variety of presents, shiny rolls of wrapping paper and intricate ornaments, as well as funny accessories with a consistent holidays pattern. They were surrounded by Santa Clauses, reindeers, snowflakes, trees, presents, bells, mistletoe, stars, red and green imprinted everywhere. A Christmas carol could be heard above the noise all the potential shoppers were making in their frenzied purchases.

“Oh, look at this, Crowley!” Aziraphale said, putting on a headband with reindeer horns. A bunch of tiny bells sewn to it jingled. “It’s adorable!” the demon looked at him, his beaming smile and his blonde curls, and blushed.

“You look ridiculous, angel.” he said, immediately turning around and faking interest on whatever stupid thing was standing on that particular shelf. He fiddled around, willing the blush to disappear.

“You should try those ones over there.” Aziraphale said, peeking over Crowley’s shoulder.

“What? No! These? No, not in a million years, nuh-huh. I’ve got standards. Unlike some people around here.” 

“Whyever not? They’re fun. And you like sunglasses,” Aziraphale insisted, having way too much fun in Crowley’s opinion. The demon sighed, took off the pair he was currently wearing and put on the heart-shaped ones Aziraphale was pointing at. He turned around, defeated.

“Oh! Oh, you look utterly adorable!” the angel jumped on his feet and clapped. “We must buy these.”

“Why? They’re made of plastic, angel. No sense of aesthetics. These - they’re hideous! It’s humiliating,” he whined as Aziraphale took him by the hand and led him to the counter, where there was no queue to wait. “You do realise this can be considered torture, right?”

“Oh, hush. I will wear this headband so you don’t feel ridiculous - not that you look ridiculous. I insist, you look adorable.” Crowley felt like he was about to combust any minute now. Not knowing anything better to do, he tried to bit back.

“How is that supposed to help? I’m not adorable, I shouldn’t look like it. I’m a demon” Crowley moaned as Aziraphale ignored him and paid for both articles. They exited the shop and went on to the next one.

“I love this shop, I love how it smells even from the outside. Marvelous,” Aziraphale briefly sniffed around before opening the door to let Crowley in. Three counters, forming an inverted U, received them. They were filled with a wide variety of sweets, treats and chocolates, each of them more intricate than the other. Aziraphale wiggled in excitement before approaching one of the clerks.

“Hello,” the angel greeted with his usual kindness. “I would like to have the usual, if you please.”

“Right away, Mr. Fell,” the lady answered before going to the backroom.

“They know you here.” Crowley said, not impressed in the least. Aziraphale was probably known in every chocolate shop in the entire United Kingdom. Probably also in Belgium, Switzerland and France. And any other country that may have chocolate shops.

“Oh, yes. It has been one of my top twenty-five chocolate shops in London for quite a while now. I’m surprised I haven’t bring you here before,” Aziraphale answered. 

“I guess we still have things to show the other…” Crowley muttered. 

“Quite right, dear.” the angel smiled shyly. “It keeps things interesting, wouldn’t you say so?”

Once Aziraphale had his box of chocolates, they both agreed they had had enough of the Christmas shopping experience. Crowley led the way to a small winery closeby. It was crowded, but once again, they were lucky enough to not have to wait before having a seat in a small corner. 

The demon was still wearing the hideous glasses while Aziraphale moved his head from time to time just to make the tiny bells on his headband jingle.

“Two red wines for the lovely couple…” the waitress placed two cups on the small table as Crowley struggled to say something.

“Thank you, dear,” said Aziraphale instead as he tried to hide a smirk behind his glass. “Hm, this is quite nice.” The demon agreed to it even though he hadn’t had a sip yet. He had always enjoyed those moments when Aziraphale would show his most bastard side and it had been nice to openly do it with the freedom they now enjoyed. But there was this smugginess about him today that was disconcerting.

They kept drinking for a couple of hours, idly chatting and discussing about that first time they celebrated the winter solstice and that other time where they got drunk on eggnog and then regretted it. They fell into a comfortable silence. Aziraphale looked around, taking in the surroundings and the people around them when he noticed something hanging from the ceiling. He opened his eyes widely, the epitome of shock.

“Is that… is that _mistletoe_?” Aziraphale asked, gesturing with his index finger towards it.

“Whuh?” Crowley had been sprawled over the table for a while now, the glasses no longer sitting properly on his nose. He looked to where Aziraphale was pointing. “Huh… I guess it is?” there was no point in denying it.

“Well. We ought to do something about it. Otherwise it’ll be bad luck. I think.” Crowley stood up straight, startled. 

“D- do you mean… Like, uh, that we should…” he trailed off.

“Kiss, yes.” Aziraphale said. “Unless you want to risk the bad luck.”

“Oh, no. No, no. Bad luck for us would actually mean _dreadful_ luck. It’s not something we should be risking. Big risk fan, me, though. But not today, I think n-” his rant was halted by two warm hands cupping his cheeks. Crowley could feel the blood rushing up his neck as he opened and closed his mouth looking for something to say. He gave up and then relaxed, soothed by the comfort of being held by Aziraphale. Time seemed to slow down as the angel closed the space between them and paused just an inch away from him, hesitating. Crowley could not stand it any longer and grabbed him by the lapels, making Aziraphale gasp, to finally, finally kiss him.

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I have no tolerance to alcohol and one glass of tinto de verano got me tipsy enough to write at twice the speed as I usually do. I edited it a little bit while being completely sober, and cringed while doing it, and now I'd like to share it with the fandom.
> 
> I most likely won't be able to keep up with the list during next week but, as I said on Day 1, my goal is to post on Saturdays and Sundays. This might give me some time to work on another holidays kind-of-crack fic I started before the prompt list.
> 
> Anyway, hopefully I did get the holiday season right in this one (at least I managed to make the prompt the main theme of the fic). Enjoy! :)
> 
> Edit: I was checking the prompt for tomorrow and realised that the prompt actually is Holiday Shopping so I'm changing everything now. Hehe.


End file.
